Lockerbie bomber Megrahi dies in Libya

Emergency service workers are seen next to the wreckage of Pan Am flight 103, in a farmer's field east of Lockerbie, Scotland in this December 23, 1988. (Photo:Reuters)

The former Libyan intelligence officer convicted of the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people has died, his brother said on Sunday. He was 59.

Abdel Basset al-Megrahi died at home after a long battle with cancer. His health had deteriorated quickly overnight, his brother Abdulhakim told Reuters.

"He was surrounded by his family and died in his house," Abdulhakim said on Sunday.

Megrahi had been in and out of hospital for weeks and he was taken for an emergency blood transfusion in April.

He was held in a prison in the town of Greenock in western Scotland after he was tried and convicted for the bombing under Scottish law, although the trial was held in the Netherlands.

In November 2008, Megrahi's lawyers asked a court to free him on bail, saying he was suffering from advanced prostate cancer. He was later released from the Scottish prison on compassionate grounds and returned to Libya, a decision criticised by the United States.

Megrahi, who served as an intelligence agent during the rule of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, denied any role in both the bombing and suspected human rights abuses in his home country before Gaddafi's fall and death in a popular uprising last year.

-Reuters